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Britain cracks down on paid search
Thursday, June 17, 2004
British regulators have asked an Internet service provider to make
clearer that some of its Web search results are paid advertisements,
saying pay-for-placement listings from search provider Overture
could confuse consumers.
The British ISP Wanadoo, a unit of its namesake French parent company,
displays a light-gray hyperlink against a white background to explain
that search results from Overture are ranked according to the highest
bidder instead of by relevance. Users searching for "Harry
Potter," for example, see six Overture results from sites including
eBay and Toys R Us before the official sites for the Harry Potter
movies and books.Overture is owned by Internet powerhouse Yahoo.
The U.K.'s Advertising Standards Authority ruled that "because
sponsored links were not clearly identified by a headline or title...consumers
could be misled." The agency asked the ISP to "ensure
that sponsored links were clearly identified in future."
Paid search listings have become a valuable source of revenue for
Internet companies.They are also a battleground in the fierce rivalry
between Yahoo and the popular Internet search engine Google, which
does not accept fees for its primary search results but displays
ads adjacent to its listings.
A representative for Wanadoo said: "We're looking at the ASA
report with some interest," and declined further comment. The
ASA has no powers to compel advertisers to comply with its rulings,
but it can pass on cases to the U.K.'s Office of Fair Trading.The
Wanadoo ISP in the U.K. was previously called Freeserve but changed
its name in April to conform with its French parent, which is a
unit of France Telecom.
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